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How QBO Can Help you Manage and Track Inventory

Part 1 of a two-part series on managing inventory with QBO.

Remember the early days of your business, when you could keep track of the products and services you sold with a written list or spreadsheet? Good times. And remember when your business grew as you added additional products and services? Even better times.

And…remember when you got to a point in your business where keeping track of inventory was a real headache? Maybe you’ve reached that stage recently. For many business owners, inventory management is an ongoing struggle.

Whether you sell products or services or both, you need records of specific items to use in transactions and reports. Those records are especially important if you have physical inventory. They can store details that help you know, for example, when it’s time to reorder.

Building a database of your inventory is time-consuming work that requires a lot of detail. But the information it supplies worth its weight in gold as you make critical buying decisions.

Detailed Templates

It’s easy enough to create your individual records. To get started, click the gear icon in the upper right corner of QuickBooks Online and select Products and Services under Lists. A table will open that will eventually contain a comprehensive list of what you sell. Click New in the upper right corner, and the Product/Service information pane slides out.

Joe Gibbons, CPA is managing partner of Gibbons & Gibbons, P.C., a Northern Virginia-based accounting and business advisory firm that specializes in working with law firms and other professional service providers.